The stand up-comedy scene in English isn’t exactly burgeoning in Pakistan. There aren’t many big names, so naturally its history in the country is equally sparse. In November 2005, Sami Shah pioneered this style of comedy and offered a first-time hybrid for Pakistani consumption with his solo act, Nobody Moves, Nobody Gets Hurt in Karachi.
Saad Haroon, another big name, is the Kahuna of local comedy and improv theatre. He created Pakistan’s first improvisational comedy troupe, Blackfish, in 2002 followed by the Shark troupe in 2008; and has toured all over Pakistan for his solo stand-up show, Saad Haroon: Very Live.
Haroon’s current stand-up-improv collaboration with Sprite University of Freshology, finally brought his hilarity to Islamabad’s Cloud 9 after an extensive tour of colleges and schools in Karachi and Lahore.
“By the time we got to Islamabad, schools were closed for the summer,” commented Abdul Hadi, a Sprite brand associate. He explained that Haroon’s stand-up routine is very youth-oriented and he is interested in fleshing out people’s problems, which is why his shows involve heavy audience participation. Many consider heavy reliance on audiences to be a tightrope for comedians since Pakistanis, especially ‘Islooites’, aren’t exactly known for their gung-ho and good-humoured attitude – especially when it comes to public embarrassment.
The Express Tribune caught up with Haroon backstage, mere minutes before his performance on Sunday, July 3. “You can expect anarchy tonight,” he said, confident and chatty. He introduced Ali, another comedian he’d paired up with for this tour. “I totally agree there isn’t much of a stand-up scene here but the reception has been great so far,” said Haroon. “The whole Sprite tour was geared towards students who usually respond well to this sort of stuff. There is an English medium minority in Pakistan that gets the jokes and can relate,” he added.
The comedian opened with a song, “The Paki Pure Blues”, satirising the country’s political situation for the young crowd. “You can buy no sugar, you can buy no wheat,” he sang, eventually making a dig at President Asif Ali Zardari which was amusing, yet cliched. Whereas it has become customary to lambaste the president for comedic purposes, it did not come across as original or oriented towards the youth. His anglicised and financially stable target audience isn’t exactly buying ‘sugar’ or ‘wheat,’ so the relevancy of this masla gets lost.
Following the tune, he started picking out audience members to kid with – which proved even less effective. Haroon would have benefited from accepting the fact that actual participation would be low because people are shy. He did succeed in pulling out two guys from the audience to partake in a game designed to poke fun at teens undergoing puberty, which didn’t elicit much of an audience reaction. His satire on desi marriages got more of a response, as did his dig at Bollywood movies: “Three hours! That’s not a movie, that’s a relationship.”
Had Haroon localised his performance more; made an increased effort to remain specific to Islamabad-based issues and topics which interested youngsters, the show could’ve boasted greater impact. His oratory was confident and comic timing was good, although he staggered from time to time, struggling with a hesitant and somewhat unresponsive audience. Overall, the show was a solid initiative to foster stand-up comedy in Islamabad.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2011.
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